BABA'S MIRACLES

Friday, July 9, 2010

“My father was a manager in a silk factory at Chamaraja Nagara, near Mysore. We are seven children to our parents. I am the eldest. I have four sisters and two brothers. One of my brothers, Ramesh lives in Bangalore. My second sister lives in Mysore.

My parents were staunch devotees of Puttaparthy Baba and also of Shirdi Baba. My family came to know about Baba through a person who was doing Harikatha in Chamaraja Nagar.

Every Thursday was a feast in our house. We would sing Bhajans and my mother would prepare Prasad to all the devotees. This continued for a long time. Both Arishina (turmeric) and Kumkuma (vermillon) was appearing from Baba's photo in our house.

We were leading a happy life with our parents. This miracle happened during Deepavali.

During the festival on a Thursday, the entire family was happily lighting fire works and enjoying a beautiful evening. As it happened to be a Thursday, Bhajans were sung. After the crackers, my mother had planned to do Mangalarati.

Meanwhile, one of my brothers, Srinivas, who was a bit stubborn, wanted to burst the crackers. But none of the crackers worked. He was unhappy, started crying and asked my mother, '' Amma! I want fresh crackers. Ask Baba to fetch me'' He kept on insisting. Mother said '' Don't be stupid, how can Baba fetch you that? Come inside, we have to do Mangalarati”. He was not convinced and he kept on crying. Within a minute a man appeared with a jholi (cotton shoulder bag) as Baba has, and took out crackers from the bag and gave it to my brother. He was stunned. The old man said, “It is OK! Take it. You wanted it from me.” My brother took it and after a few seconds that man disappeared. Is any further proof required to say that the man with the jholi was Baba?

Well, I felt like writing to you about this miracle. My residence address

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

On 23 June 2010, an old lady left her home abruptly, without telling anyone. She did not leave even a note or any other clue as to where she was going. She had simply removed her ornaments and kept them on a table. When she did not return after several hours, the relatives got panicky and tried to contact their other relatives and friends regarding the old lady’s whereabouts. No one knew where she had gone. Finally, the lady’s granddaughter, Suma, who was a student of Rajesh, suggested that they should seek Rajesh’s help in this matter. Suma’s mother and some other relatives came to the Sai temple at Mallasandra and asked Rajesh. He prayed Sai and requested that the old lady’s whereabouts be made known. Baba told him that there was nothing to worry, as the lady is at the temple of Sri Siddalingeshwara near Yedur, 50 kms from Tumkur and very near Kunigal. Baba advised that the relatives should go there and find her there.

That evening Rajesh got a call from the relatives that they had gone to Yedur and true to Baba’s words, found her there. The old lady was hale and healthy, and the relatives further added that they would be coming to Mallasandra with the old lady for Puja next day. Even in 21st century, Baba comes to the rescue of his devotees. We have only to seek him, he is always with us.

Friday, June 11, 2010

So far, so good. Sri K Chikkanna, from Kumkumanahalli, built the platform for the placement of Baba's idol. Rajesh could not get anyone to install the idol and he did not know any mantras. Baba guided him not only for the installation, but He taught him how to do daily puja also. The photo below shows the entrance to the temple. After some more days, Baba asked him to quit his job and dedicate himself to Baba. Rajesh argued that he had two young daughters who had to be brought up and groomed. Baba asked him to have faith in Him and not to worry. Rajesh duly resigned his job. He spent all his time in Baba’s service. After a few months, time came for paying the examination fees of his daughters. Rajesh needed Rs. 3, 000. He told Baba, “I have followed your instructions, see, what has happened now. I do not have any money to pay the fees.” Baba told him not to worry. He asked Rajesh to put his fingers in the slit of the cloth tied to the hundi vessel and take out three times whatever came without opening the cloth completely. Rajesh thought that this was another of Baba’s jokes. There had been no visitor for the past several days, and at most the vessel might contain a fiver or a tenner. However, he followed the instructions and placed his fingers inside the vessel and lifted out a one thousand rupee note. He repeated it two more times and removed, in all, three thousand rupees. Baba then asked him to go and pay the fees. Rajesh was diffident. He told Baba that it was His money and how he could use it. Baba asked him not to worry and pay the fees immediately. Since that moment, Rajesh’s duty has been to visit Baba’s devotees as per Baba’s directions and give them Baba’s instructions.It is not that Baba has been kind always to Rajesh. There are occasions when He punished Rajesh very severely by beating him with His satka. Once, Baba told him to wait for one of His devotees who was coming. Rajesh waited till 3.00pm and assuming that the devotee may not turn up, he went for some other work. The devotee came half an hour late and waited for Rajesh for nearly an hour and left. When Rajesh returned, Baba bet him with his satka below his right kneecap. The satka made a cut and it started bleeding. Rajesh apologized for the inadvertent slip and begged Baba for mercy. The bleeding stopped, but the cut can still be seen. (The photo on the right, below, shows the backwater of Hemavathi river.)

Rajesh has a friend, Sri Nagarjuna. He was working in Secunderabad, and is a staunch Baba devotee. Baba got him posted to Tumkur, so that he could be of help to Rajesh. Rajesh asked Nagarjuna to visit Sri Sai Baba temple at Siddipet in Andhra Pradesh and meet Sri Krishna Murthy. Sri Nagarjuna visited the Siddipet temple and talked to Sri Krishna Murthy and later met him at his residence in Hyderabad. Sri Krishna Murthy called me for three consecutive days, but for various reasons, I was not available. Then he called in the evening of the fourth day and told me that he wanted to narrate a great miracle. I asked him to come over, as these could not be talked over in detail over a telephone. He came a few minutes later on and told me all the details. Then he connected me to Rajesh over my mobile. As he knew Kannada very well, I talked to Rajesh in Kannada and Rajesh was overjoyed to tell me about his experiences. He later gave my number to his friend Nagarjuna who was at that time in Hyderabad itself. I met Nagarjuna next day at his residence and heard the details once again.

I narrated all these strange but true happenings to Sri Srinivas in Bangalore. Srinivas is also a Sai devotee. Over the weekend he went with his family to Rajesh’s place and saw the temple, the idol and the surroundings. He took photographs of the same and sent them to me. He invited Rajesh to his residence on 19 May 2010, the day being his birthday. Srinivas told Rajesh that I would also be coming to Bangalore for the birthday and Rajesh could also meet me.

Rajesh and his friend Nagarjuna came to Bangalore on 19 May and I went and received them. My impression of Rajesh, at that time, was that he looked totally like someone out of this world. He was direct, simple and full of affection. His eyes were blazing and very rarely he batted his eyelids. He and Nagarjuna stayed with us for nearly four hours. At the time of leaving, he asked me to bring a particular girl with a pink frock. I was surprised as I had not paid any attention to anyone other than Rajesh. After some searching, I located the girl and brought her. As soon as the attention turned on the girl, the girl’s mother was scared and she also came to Rajesh. Rajesh told her that the girl would experience some health hazard and that Baba had provided a remedy also. The parents are to take the girl to Shirdi, get her teertham at Dwarakamai, and then sit there in meditation for a few minutes. That would cure the girl of the problem. Rajesh also told them that Baba had asked him to tell this to the parents, though Rajesh himself was not for telling this, this being not very pleasant information.

If ever a proof was needed for Baba being active even after His Samadhi, this was one. All the names given above are real. Any or all of them can be contacted over the following mobile numbers:

"It was the month of February 2008. Our farm has one open well of 31 feet deep, 18 feet radius and one bore well of 240 feet depth. Both are having plenty of water. I was using only the bore well for both drinking and agriculture. We were not using the water from the well as it was stagnant and green in colour due to fungal growth. I was afraid to use it for cooking and drinking purpose. The well could be seen next to the building on the right side of the photograph. (The photo also shows the pathway taken by Baba on that September morning in 2007)

One day, due to voltage fluctuation, the motor of the bore well was burnt and there was no water for either drinking or agriculture. I requested Baba, after pooja, about this. He advised me to collect 7 flowers from Baba's Idol and drop the flowers, one by one reciting the names of holy rivers, Ganga, Yamuna, Godhavari, Saraswathi, Narmada, Sindhu and Cauvery. I did as told by Baba. It was Monday. Later he told me not to go near the well for three days. After three days i.e., on Thursday I went with my wife Mangala and peeped into the well, only to find crystal clear water in the well. At that time there was water for 22 ft out of 31 Feet. The water was available at 9ft itself. I came running to temple and prostrated at the feet of Baba. He said, “Use it”. Since then we are using only the water from the well and not from the bore well. Whoever drinks the water not only quenches his thirst but is also cured of skin problems, if any."

Devotees are often in the habit of falling into the trap of disbelief and loss of faith. It is during these times that Baba manifests Himself and redeems his devotees. The following is a great example of the same during very recent times.

Rajesh was living with his wife, Mangala and two young daughters - Harshita aged 14 years and Reema aged 9 years - in Mallasandra, somewhere between Tumkur and Gubbi. He was a Kannada teacher in St. Joseph High School near Mallasandra on Gubbi Main Road. Rajesh had a farm and a farm house nearly 8 kms from Mallasandra. Off late, he found that the farm produce was being stolen by someone unknown to him. So, he decided to move into the farm house and take care of the farm. The farm house was an excuse of a house. It had bare brick walls, without any plastering and mangalore tiles for the roof. The cooking gas was absent and all the cooking had to be done by burning the firewood. Rajesh used to commute by public transport to his place of work. Photo above shows Rajesh's house.

Life went on uneventfully till that 9th September morning in 2007. It was a cold winter morning, and the time was nearly 5.00 am. Rajesh was cleaning cow dung in the cow shed. The farm house had a wooden compound and a wicket gate. At that time, a simple looking fakir,with a pink coloured headgear, white kafni and a jholi opened the gate, entered the cow shed and sat near Rajesh. Photo shows the cow shed.

Rajesh was taken aback seeing the fakir. The fakir said something which Rajesh could not understand. Then fakir showed his stomach and said roti in Hindi. Rajesh understood that he was asking for roti to eat. Rajesh Said, "Thatha (grand father)! wait" and he went inside to ask his wife if there was anything to eat. Mangala said that there was nothing to eat but said that she will prepare chai and give it to Thatha. Rajesh went back and asked the fakir " Thatha will you have chai?". Fakir agreed. Rajesh asked fakir where from he was coming and what he was doing at that early hour in the morning. Fakir replied that he was in the Heggeri Masjid all night, was hungry and so, came to his house for food. Rajesh went back to the house to see if chai was ready. When he came back with chai, he saw that fakir had moved to a vacant place next to his house and with both his hands was doing something. Rajesh was terrified seeing this and thought that the fakir was doing some black magic and if the villagers saw this he will be in trouble. Rajesh made a sound and fakir immediately turned, came back and sat in the cow shed. Photo, below, shows the place where Baba sat in the Dwarakamai pose. Both Rajesh and fakir had the chai. After sometime, fakir again asked for rotis. Rajesh told fakir, "Thatha it is too early to make rotis" and asked him to wait till 7.30am. Fakir then took out a tiffin box from his jholi, opened it and showed steaming hot lemon rice. The farm house was a lonely structure there and as far as the eye could see, there was no other house anywhere near. There was no approach road to the farm house and the house could be reached only by walking through the fields. By the time anyone would come from the road to the house, any hot item would have become cold. Even after lapse of so much of time, the steam was coming out. Rajesh thought that that was a miracle. The fakir told him that the lemon rice was for his lunch and he wanted something to eat immediately. The fakir again asked for roti and realized that as it was not coming, started getting up and going. Rajesh asked him to stay back. The fakir said that he was not giving roti and so he is going. Then Mangala asked Rajesh to give some money to the fakir so that he could at least eat at a nearby hotel. Rajesh went inside, took out 5 rupees and by the time he came back, the fakir had already gone some distance. Rajesh ran, patted the fakir on his shoulders from behind and gave 5 rupees and told fakir to eat some idlies from a hotel on the main road which would be open at that time. The fakir took the 5 rupees in both his hands and said "Allah bhala garega". Rajesh just stood and stared at the fakir, who left immediately. When Rajesh went back home, his wife said that the fakir was looking like Shirdi Sai Baba. Suddenly Rajesh felt a wave pass through him and his body shivered. He ran back to see if the fakir was still there. He could not find the fakir anywhere. Rajesh felt sad that he did not recognize him.That night Rajesh had a dream. The fakir who came in the morning appeared in the dream and said that he was none other than the Sai Baba of Shirdi, and that Rajesh had failed to recognize him. He also told that He had made markings in his farm for the construction of a temple and asked Rajesh to build a temple for Him. Rajesh thought that it was a very crude joke as he had no money at all. He told the same to Baba. Then Baba told him, “Why do you worry when I am here!” Next morning, the first thing Rajesh did was to check his farm. There were clear white markings on the farm, indicating where the idol should be placed and the outer boundary of the temple. Rajesh felt very happy on seeing the markings and felt that what Appaji (Baba) told was correct. Rajesh calls Baba as Appaji . Photo shows the garden before Baba temple was built.

After a few days, an unknown gentleman gave Rajesh Rs.40, 000 for the construction of the temple. Rajesh was a typical villager and did not know anything about either Sai Baba or how to go about the process of building a temple. He was a simple man who knew only the basics of maintaining himself and his family. He was totally perplexed about what was happening to him. When he told this to Baba, He appeared once again in Rajesh’s dream and gave him the name and the mobile number of a mason in a neighboring town. Rajesh called up that number and asked the mason, Sri Siddalinga, if he can help in constructing the temple. Siddalinga asked Rajesh how he got his mobile number as this was not shared with anybody other than his family members. Then Rajesh told about Appaji (Baba) and that he gave him the number. Siddalinga was surpised to hear this as he had got a similar dream the previous night. He agreed to build the temple and informed Rajesh that he will not be charging anything for his work. Rajesh felt very happy.

Thus a temple structure was built for Baba by Baba himself, in a space of 13' X 19'. Appaji (Baba) informed Rajesh that he will be there all the time with him.

(Photo shows the outside view of the Temple)Then the moment came for installing the idol of Baba. Rajesh did not know from where to get it. Baba once again guided him and told him to go to Shirdi for the idol. Next day, Rajesh went to Tumkur and was enquiring about how to go to Shirdi. Different people told him different methods. An old man, chewing mouthful of pan, called him and asked him if he wanted to go to Shirdi. When Rajesh confirmed, the old man asked him to go to Pune where a tonga would be waiting for him and would take him to Shirdi. When he reached Shirdi, Rajesh was stunned by seeing so many people. He was standing in front of Dwarakamai. He did not know where to go and how to buy. Once again the same fakir who came to his house was there. He warned Rajesh that people in Shirdi would cut his purse and rob him. He advised him to go to a particular shop and buy the first idol he saw. Rajesh bought the idol. It was very heavy. Without thinking any further about visiting the Samadhi Mandir or Dwarakamai, he returned back to his place.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

PRANAMS TO SAI BANDHUS!

This blog is dedicated to recording various experiences of Shirdi Sai Baba devotees. The miracles experienced by the devotees, may please be entered in the comments, which would then be transferred to the main body of the blog.